Observance
by brickboat
Summary: Jirou would've gone with them too if she had any choice in the matter. [Ties in with Get Well Soon]


A/N: tfw u wanna make a small fic and get it out before the next chapter comes out and josses it but it balloons to over 6000 words.

Also this ties in with Get Well Soon, though I wouldn't call it a sequel. More like a side story-ish thing.

* * *

All it took to wake Jirou up was a buzz from her phone.

She lay in her hospital bed. The lights were off in the room – the nurses did it for all the patients at 21:00 so they could sleep. It couldn't have been that long since she conked out, but she was still groggy. She wished she could've gone home today.

Jirou wasn't a fan of hospitals. She avoided using her quirk to poke around and listen to whatever she could find, which made the whole experience one she wasn't looking forward to (even if she'd only experienced it a few times herself). She couldn't understand half the medical jargon the staff used; she didn't like to hear the disgusting sound of... fluids; and, to put it bluntly, hospitals were one of those places where the worst in people came out. When she listened around school, she could focus on the funny-but-trivial things she could laugh about with Kaminari. But in a hospital, it just felt inappropriate to listen in on other peoples' conversations (especially with how sensitive the subject matter could be). Maybe if she wanted to be a doctor or something it would be fine, but she wasn't going to pretend there was any chance of that happening.

Of course, she _did_ make a preliminary sweep when she first woke up: Hagakure and Midoriya were the only people she _knew_ in the hospital, though she recognized what sounded like some of the kids from Class B. Jirou considered visiting the latter to get a better idea of what happened (since they weren't talking about it on their own), but her legs almost buckling under her as she got off the bed put a sound end to that plan. Jirou and Hagakure were together when the villains attacked the training camp, and they had about the same amount of exposure to that poison gas; so the hospital put them in the same room. They also didn't take much damage beyond a few scrapes and whatever they breathed in, so they were told to sleep it out and then get discharged the next day.

Midoriya on the other hand was a few rooms down, though he apparently woke up way earlier than them, She didn't know what happened to him, but he signed out and exited the hospital around 19:30. She couldn't track him after he left: The ambient noise on the streets drowned him out with the sheer number of sounds populating it. But his steps oozed agitation as he walked out the entrance. She wondered if it had anything to do with what went on yesterday.

A nurse gave Jirou and Hagakure the gist of what happened at the training camp when she wheeled in their dinner. Some villains invaded, and the two of them were knocked out by poison gas before they realized anything was happening. Heroes came in and saved the day. It was a very bare bones explanation, but Jirou didn't think enough of it to press farther (though that might just have been the fatigue talking).

Apparently everyone else in Class A stopped by to visit earlier. Too bad Midoriya was the only one up at that point.

Her phone unlocked with a swipe of her thumb. She squinted when the screen turned out to be way brighter than she expected. She had a few new texts. They were from Kaminari.

 _-JIROU WAKE UP_

 _-TURN ON THE TV. NOW._

She rubbed her eyes and looked at them again. Being yelled at in texts with decent grammar and no emojis wasn't something she expected first thing in the evening – well, it was more like the middle of the night. She looked at the time on her phone. It was a little after 23:00.

Wasn't it a little late to be texting? This conversation _could_ wait until the morning, couldn't it? Though if it was on the TV _right now_ it had to be airing right then. And even through text, it really sounded urgent. Where was that remote, anyway? She tapped out a response.

 _Okay isn't it kinda late though?-_

 _-JUST DO IT_

Jeez. Fine. The remote was over on the tray next to Hagakure. She stretched out one of her lobes and grabbed it. There was a bit of clacking, but if her phone buzzing wasn't enough to wake Hagakure up, this wouldn't be either. The TV flickered on with a press of the power button. It was set to the NHK station by default.

The first thing she saw was a helicopter view of a barren area about the size of a few city blocks. Building around the perimeter were collapsed on themselves. Smoke and debris drifted into the air. It looked like some kind of terrorist attack had taken place. What exactly happened? Her eyes focused as she saw a familiar figure, unmistakable even at that distance.

The TV was set to mute. It took only a few seconds to bring the remote back to her bed. The power button was big enough to hit with her jacks, but the others were too small. She turned up the volume.

"-It's hard to believe that a single villain could obliterate several city blocks and go toe-to-toe with the Symbol of Peace himself..."

So All Might was fighting a villain. And they were fighting on equal footing. There was already a ton of collateral damage. Was everyone else in her class watching this? The group chat was dead silent. Why did Kaminari contact her specifically? All Might fought a lot of villains, even in the condition he was in now. Besides how strong the villain was and the excessive amount of property damage, what made this fight in particular so different?

And more importantly...

 _What happened?-_

By reflex, she did a quick sweep around the hospital, ignoring everything that didn't have sound similar to what she was hearing. A few TVs were on and set to the same channel (including some of those from rooms Class B kids were in), but no one was saying anything relevant. They had no extra information to give.

"Mn... What's going on...?" Hagakure mumbled from the other bed. Her bed springs creaked as she rolled over to face her.

Jirou pointed her thumb at the TV screen.

"Looks like All Might-sensei's fighting a villain."

"At _this_ hour?" Hagakure yawned. Her legs cracked as she stretched.

Jirou's phone buzzed again. Hagakure leaned over a bit out of what Jirou assumed to be curiosity.

"Who're you talking to?" She asked.

"Kaminari."

"Isn't it kinda late?"

"That's what _I_ told him." She looked back down at her phone.

 _-Some of the others went to get Bakugou_

Hold on.

 _Wait what happened to Bakugou?-_

 _-Those villains who attacked us yesterday took him._

Jirou sat up so fast Hagakure almost jumped back. Blood rushed to her head in a pulse. She pulled the phone less than a foot away from her face and scanned the text over again. She hadn't misread it before. Gee Kaminari, why couldn't you have said that _before_?

Well, _now_ she knew why this was so important. Some of their classmates were likely down there as this was happening. The reporter hadn't mentioned anything about U.A. students. The focus was on the fight, but the only consolation it gave was that they weren't right there battling alongside All Might.

She tried thinking of who those "others" Kaminari mentioned could be. It couldn't be too big a number; too many cooks in the kitchen was a definite consideration when someone's life was at stake. Obviously it wasn't Kaminari himself – he wouldn't be talking with her then. Anything Ashido did with her quirk would easily be traced back to her, so she'd sit it out. Iida was the class president, and it had to be against the rules, so he'd be out too. She toyed around with the likelihood of different classmates going along with some kind of rescue mission (that _couldn't_ have been approved of by any authorities).

Had Jirou had any other quirk, she probably would've refused too if offered the chance; but this was something her quirk was practically _made_ for. Kidnapping was definitely something best left to the authorities. But if there were others dead set on going that couldn't be convinced otherwise, she wouldn't feel right just leaving them to do it without her. Assuming they had a way to track down where the villains took Bakugou (which they had to; this plan wouldn't work otherwise), they still wouldn't have any idea of the building layouts or the locations of said villains, which would be _more than a little helpful_ if they wanted to avoid fights (which they also had to; said villains wouldn't hesitate to kill them if they were anything like the ones at USJ).

Bakugou was probably restrained in a similar way to how he was during the award ceremony, but somewhere not easily accessible. It had to have been over 24 hours since he was abducted. Did the villains even feed him? If they didn't, one of the group would probably have to carry him out (decreasing the combat-ready party members by one). Who would even be the best person to do that without losing mobility? Shouji?

She should've paid more attention to her surroundings during that test of courage. Then she wouldn't have been taken down by that gas and stuck in a hospital when her _classmates were in danger_.

But then there was Midoriya, who stuck out in particular. She thought back to earlier today. There was something definitely off about him, even though he didn't say what it was (to himself or otherwise). He and Bakugou were childhood friends. Even without a quirk suited for stealth missions (which is what this would have to be, if the group had any common sense whatsoever), he definitely would've been one of the first to volunteer.

She typed away. She needed to confirm it.

 _Wait Midoriya was in the hospital too-_

 _I heard him leave earlier. Is that were he went?-_

 _-So he did go..._

So he didn't know Midoriya was going for sure? That meant the rescue mission wasn't his idea in the first place. Narrowing down the possibilities, it was probably Kirishima's; he seemed to be the guy Bakugou got along best with in class. And while she'd never talked with him at length, Kirishima really seemed like the kind of guy who would do it. It also explained why Midoriya left the hospital to meet the rescue team, rather than the other way around.

 _What was he in for anyway?-_

It wasn't life-threatening; but there was definitely a reason he was stuck in the hospital. And it wasn't poison gas or else he would be stuck in his room too.

 _-He was the most banged up out of all of us actually_

 _-Bruises everywhere_

 _-I didn't even know arms could look like that they were totes busted_

 _-Recovery Girl really had to go to town on him_

 _-He probably should've stayed in bed honestly_

Holy shit.

 _AND YOU GUYS DIDN'T STOP HIM?-_

It was a testament to Recovery Girl's abilities that he'd be healed up and ready to leave that fast. But he couldn't have recovered all his strength in just a day. Jirou had heard about it during those conversations Recovery Girl had that involved him. Those attacks he'd use would straight-up _shatter_ his bones. And it was only a matter of time before that damage was permanent. Which was only more likely to happen when he did it in quick succession.

 _-I didn't think he'd actually go_

 _-He's one of the smartest guys in class I thought he'd stand down this time_

Yeah. 'This time.'

Thinking back, it wasn't surprising. The guy broke his fingers one after another during the sports festival. It'd stand to reason that he'd think go along with it even in that condition.

But one Midoriya and Kirishima wasn't enough to break into a villain hideout. And Kaminari said "others", which meant there had to be at least one more person was there.

 _Who else is there?-_

 _-Kirishima and Todoroki are the only ones confirmed going. But I think Yaoyorozu's going too since she made the homing tracker._

So... Midoriya, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu.

Wait-

She looked at the TV again. If they were using their quirks, none of them were suited for a standard rescue mission besides MAYBE Yaoyorozu – and that was just because she could make keys and smoke bombs. Midoriya just punched things, Todoroki's quirk was too flashy (though it would be effective for taking down thugs en masse), and Kirishima could only function well as a bullet (and other things) shield and/or battering ram.

She pulled the phone away from her face. Her eyes were starting to hurt.

 _Where are they?-_

 _-You're not thinking of actually going there are you?_

Did she really need to answer that?

 _My quirk is one of the best in class for rescuing people-_

For standard search and rescue operations, she was one of the most suited for it.

 _Look at those buildings. They might be trapped in one of them-_

Or captured by villains. Or dead. She hated how those were the first things to come to mind. Where _were_ all the other villains, anyway? It was weird how All Might was only fighting one villain. And how he was the only hero there for that matter.

 _Hagakure's up too we could sneak into the area easy using our quirks-_

Speaking of which...

"Hey Hagakure."

"Yes?"

"Wanna go?"

"There?" Hagakure pointed at the screen, or at least that's what Jirou figured she did.

"Yeah."

"Are you crazy?! We're not even pro heroes! We'd just get in All Might's way!"

"All Might's not the one I'm worried about."

"Wait, then who-"

"Apparently Bakugou got kidnapped-"

" _ **What**_?! _He's_ out there _too_?"

" _And_ apparently Midoriya and a few others went to get him back." Jirou set her hand flat in a lowering motion. Hagakure could be really loud when she wanted to be, which Jirou was usually fine with, but they were in a hospital and it was the middle of the night.

"Why would they do that?! So they want to get themselves _killed_?!" Hakagure's voice went down to a strong whisper. She grabbed her hair in frustration. Jirou could hear her nails lightly scratch her scalp.

"No, but they might be in danger."

"Well what can _we_ do?"

"You're invisible and I can hear where people are. Between the two of us, we can sneak in past whatever barricades the police set up and track them down." The police wouldn't even know Midoriya and the others were there. And the amount of destruction meant that there had to be a lot of blind spots too. If they could just sneak in and out without any fuss or injuries, that would be the best scenario.

"Just a sec. I'll ask them where they are." Hagakure grabbed her phone off the tray.

"Wait."

Hagakure stopped right before she could select a phone contact.

"Why?"

"If they're in trouble, it might distract them. If anything, we should wait for _them_ to call _us_ first." Or text, but same difference.

She glanced back at her phone. Kaminari was still texting her.

 _-Okay FIRST off IT'S TOO DANGEROUS_

 _-Second they're in KANAZAWA_

 _-You're in NAGANO_

 _-That's like 2 hours away even by shinkansen. You won't make in time._

 _-I wanna go too man but there's nothing we can do_

She sighed.

There was a distinct irony in Kaminari being the voice of reason here. If she'd been told earlier that this conversation would happen, Jirou would've figured their positions would be reversed.

Her stomach turned as she racked her brain for some kind of solution. It'd be one thing if the fight was right next door, but it was too far away to reach in a reasonable amount of time unless Hagakure had a teleportation quirk lying around that she conveniently forgot to mention. Time was everything. Her classmates needed to get out of there as soon as possible. But by the time she and Hagakure would get there, the incident would long be over.

There wasn't anything she could do, was there.

A large explosion on-screen caught her attention. She hadn't been paying attention to the TV at all throughout this conversation. All she knew was that the entire area was now just one big dust cloud.

Jirou turned to Hakagure.

"I didn't catch that. What just happened?"

"The villain guy just punched up a dust cloud, I think...? I'm not sure."

The dust cleared as fast as it appeared.

But the man that stood in its place looked nothing like All Might. Hunched over. Thin as a rail. Frazzled hair. Sunken face and eyes. Looked like he was on death's doorstep. Jirou might've thought it was someone else entirely had he not been wearing his hero costume.

Hagakure gasped.

"What did that villain just do?!" She must've thought that it was the villain's quirk that did it.

Jirou shrugged, but didn't take her eyes off the screen.

"...I don't know."

That was a lie, but she wasn't going to correct Hagakure. It had to be that "other form" she heard about while scouting the school. It sent a chill up her just looking at it. His "time limit" was up, wasn't it.

A pit of dread formed in her stomach. Could he even fight like that?

All Might and the villain were talking, but Jirou couldn't hear it. The camera on the helicopter couldn't pick up the conversation from that distance, but its crew didn't dare get any closer. This was a fight between the strongest hero and a villain on par with him. They obviously didn't want to risk getting caught in the crossfire.

All Might fell to his knees. She didn't know why. She couldn't see his expression from that far, but he gave off an aura of despair.

The villain got closer. He was wearing some kind of broken mask. His skin looked like chewed bubblegum. He had no facial features. He didn't even have eyes. Jirou wondered what kind of quirk he had that would let him do this much damage when he couldn't even see.

The villain was probably saying something.

She knew that because All Might responded.

Apparently there was a little girl in the rubble behind him.

Was she the one he took the brunt of the villain's attack for? The blast left a wedge shape in the ground, preventing further destruction of the buildings behind him.

All Might looked back at her.

She said something.

All Might stood.

It was like he fully regained his resolve. Like there wasn't anything wrong with him.

Power returned to his arm.

All Might looked like he could pull through and _win_.

Even if he couldn't hear her, Jirou still wanted to cheer him on. Her hands clenched into fists and she held them close to her chest. Her heart was beating with excitement.

Hagakure was doing the same, mumbling "C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!" under her breath all the while.

A sense of hope rippled through them.

Even though they could only watch as the fight played out.

Even though they could only hope that their friends were alright.

Jirou's phone buzzed one more time.

She had to force her focus away from the TV to check it.

 _-Jirou? You still there?_

She paused for a moment before replying.

 _Yeah. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere.-_

* * *

It was about a half hour later that Iida posted in the class-wide group chat.

 _Good news, everyone: The mission was a success. We all made it out and no one sustained any injuries_

Jirou and Hagakure sighed with relief.

The replies from her classmates poured in almost immediately: Asking how Bakugou was, asking where they were, asking if they were REALLY okay, asking why _Iida_ was the one to send that text. But the number of questions were drowned out by cries of relief. Jirou was definitely not the only one who thought Midoriya and the others had gotten stuck in one of those collapsed buildings. Or worse. Some of them were worried about All Might too, but the fight made it look like he would be just fine (if skinny). They just figured it was villain shenanigans that made him look like that and that he'd be back to normal in no time.

Even the less talkative members of Class A got in on it. Asui asked rapid fire questions on their status (especially Bakugou's, since villains weren't exactly known for their hospitality). Shouji apologized profusely for not doing more to prevent this from happening in the first place. Kouda wrote out enough text it would probably fill five whole pages in a word document.

Kirishima filled them in on what happened on their end. They got 'super cool' disguises at a store (Mineta got a long-winded explanation about supporting the economy when he asked why Yaoyorozu didn't just make them). Some drunk weirdos hit on Yaoyorozu for looking like a hostess. They snuck through a sketchy-looking back alley. The tracker Yaoyorozu made led them to some kind of Noumu factory, though they weren't able to get in and get a closer look before a bunch of heroes stormed in.

And then a few minutes later, a villain in a black mask trounced said heroes; said villain was the one everyone say fighting All Might. More villains (some of them they recognized from the attack at the training camp) came out of some kind of black goop together with Bakugou. Apparently there was another facility they didn't know about and that's where they were keeping him. Then All Might arrived on the scene before they could do anything else.

To get to Bakugou, they (Midoriya's group) busted down the wall using Kirishima as a battering ram. Todoroki made an ice ramp. Iida used his reciproburst to sent them flying. Bakugou flew up using his explosions and grabbed on so they could make a grand getaway. They did it so fast the villains couldn't do anything about it – well, they _tried_ to send one of their own to grab them, but Mt. Lady and Grand Torino put a stop to it easy (Jirou had never heard of the latter before now; he was apparently an obscure hero). They got away with it and didn't have to fight even once (well- besides Bakugou, but he didn't sustain any injuries).

No one thought to scold them about the plan, or even point out how they could've gotten themselves killed. Instead it was all about how awesome that sounded, and how they should totally try replicating it at one of their next rescue exercises in class. The chat was filled to the brim with positivity.

Right now the group was taking a train to Yaoyorozu's place – hopefully there wasn't going to be anymore excitement for the rest of the night. Thankfully it wasn't late-enough for all the trains to stop running. The plan was for them all to stay at her house for the night. It was plenty large (with more than enough guest rooms), and she told her parents she offered to board some some of her friends who had nowhere to stay for the night, leaving them none-the-wiser to what actually happened.

Some of the others suggested that Bakugou get escorted home before they go their separate way tomorrow. Bakugou immediately swiped Midoriya's phone and told them to fuck off. Asui and Kaminari replied with a "there it is" almost in sync. The following banter flowed so naturally that they might as well have not been separated by screens. The mood mellowed out and everyone asked each other how they were doing. Even Jirou and Hagakure got a few comments about how they should be asleep.

But after the initial rush of energy they slowly trickled out. Some of them were happy that they made it out of the city and called it a day. Others wanted to be make sure they all got to Yaoyorozu's safely. The former group she wasn't sure about: Aoyama, for example, was one of the first to 'leave', but he kept on replying for a long time after as if he'd never said it.

Everyone wanted to start making plans right away. Nothing huge, but they all definitely wanted to get together and hang out sometime within the next few days. There were still time left in summer vacation, and it'd be a shame to waste it now that they didn't have to do any schoolwork (a bit of a silver lining in all this).

When it was all said and done, Jirou went back to laying flat on her bed. She closed her eyes. She pushed herself to sleep. Any more worrying to be done could wait until tomorrow. The little leftover bits nagging at her could shove it. There was no point in stressing herself out when she needed to rest.

Everything was okay, and that's how it should be.

* * *

"Hey Jirou! Hey Hagakure!"

Kaminari came in to visit the next day, a beaming grin plastered on his face. A plastic grocery bag with what looked like bananas inside hung off his arm. She heard him as he came into the hospital. It was kinda weird hearing him by himself: Not because she expected the whole class to come and (try to) visit her again; more the fact that Kaminari was a social butterfly and it was kinda weird hearing him not with anyone else of his own volition.

"Hey, Kaminari." She sat up and stretched her arms. "It's just me. Hagakure's parents came earlier." No one had made the bed, so it would stand to reason that Hagakure might still be there. Especially with her affinity for... not wearing clothes. Though he would've known that had he not skipped signing in at the reception desk.

Jirou's mom was going to come at 13:00. That was still a couple hours away. She appreciated having company in the mean time.

"Well then, I guess _you_ get extra." He pulled out two hands of bananas, one after the other, and set them on the tray next to her. Then he pulled over a chair and plopped down without a care in the world. Seeing someone be that casual in a hospital setting was welcome, to say the least.

"Sooooo," he leaned forward, "how're you feeling? Any better?"

"Yeah. Just a little tired. But I'm out in another couple hours anyway, so it's fine." For whatever reason her body thought that was just the right time to yawn, tacking on a bit of emphasis. Kaminari caught it and did the same thing a few seconds later. While talking.

"Oh, so you get to leave today? Nice!"

"I know, right? I can't _wait_ to get home. It's so _boring_ here." She motioned at the room as a whole: just had a TV with like 3 channels, some old magazines from like 20 years ago, and a swarth of sounds she wasn't going to touch with a 29-and-a-half foot pole. Hagakure wasn't even around to play shiritori with anymore. Well, there _was_ her phone among all that stuff, but whoever brought her phone forgot to bring the charger with it (it died right after breakfast).

They carried on the conversation in a similar tone for another 20 minutes or so. Kaminari caught her up on what happened at the training camp (as much as he could – he was in the lodge for the duration of the incident). The only info Jirou could provide was the condition of the class B kids: They were still fine, though a few were in the same position as her and just waiting for their parents. It was kinda weird how Kaminari was the one who knew everything and was telling Jirou for once, instead of the other way around.

But throughout it, it was obvious there was something else he wanted to talk about. They were having fun, but this was still going through the motions of polite conversation lest he be rude and imply the only reason he wanted to talk to her was to ask those questions. Preferably, he wouldn't at all; but you can't have everything.

He lowered his head slightly and looked to the right. Yep there it was. His voice was laced with a twinge of nervousness when he spoke again.

"So about last night..."

He rubbed his neck.

"So like..."

He looked back up. His eyes met hers.

"What _was_ that?"

"...What're you talking about?" She had an idea, but there were multiple avenues the conversation could take. Or at least, that's what she liked to think. She had a general idea of what Kaminari would say next, and it probably had nothing to do with the villain.

"You know... _That_." He shook his hands once for emphasis. "How he looked there at the end. It's like he was a _scarecrow_ or something. Why didn't you tell us he was _that_ bad off?"

She sighed. Of course. Kaminari wasn't stupid; he definitely connected last night to what happened before – when everyone thought All Might was really sick and got him a card. He was the most stubborn one in class when it came to trying to get her to spill more of what she'd overheard from various school faculty.

"I didn't tell you guys because I didn't know."

It was a half-truth. She knew about his "other form", but she had no idea what it _looked_ like before now. And what was she even supposed to say? 'Hey guys All Might actually looks nothing like that no pix or anything just take my word for it'? No, that would be stupid.

But she _did_ know he was bad off. Really bad off. But all she had confirmed was that All Might was a) getting weaker, b) stuck with an injury that would never fully heal, and c) _**dying**_. Pretty much everything else was just supposition on her part, even if it did make sense (to the point she factored them into her theories – if anything, what happened last night only added fuel to that fire).

" _Bullshit_ you didn't know!" It wasn't like Kaminari to have that added bite in his tone (though he luckily didn't raise his voice too much since they were in a hospital), but it was obvious he knew she knew more than she let on.

But like yesterday, there wasn't anything either of them could do. If she straight-up told him All Might was _dying_ , what would it accomplish besides stressing him out? And she didn't want to _think_ about what would happen if it got out to everyone else in her class. Most of them thought it was 100% the villain that made him look like that. She didn't want to lie to their faces if it came to it, but it would be better than knowing it while _also_ knowing they couldn't do anything about it.

"Kaminari, I can only _hear_ things with my quirk. Not _see_ them. I can't tell what someone looks like just by the way they _walk_." She kept her voice firm. It wasn't right to yell in a hospital. But it was frustrating getting into an argument where she couldn't even use all the information at her disposal.

"And no one said _anything_ about it?"

"Listen, by the time I started actually focusing him over that dumb gossip I hear everywhere else, they weren't even _talking_ about how he looked." Well, in a way that would indicate that what she saw on TV was what he really looked like. Most comments on his personal appearance were just on how he looked like hell.

"...So what _were_ they talking about?"

"..." She never told him about that conversation she overheard between Recovery Girl and All Might. She wasn't about to now.

"Like, he's the Symbol of Peace. What _happened_ to him?" Kaminari had something there. She never heard the full story herself.

"...No one I listened in on knows either." If they did, those conversations were likely so few and far in between that she'd have a hard time finding them even if she looked specifically for them.

"But they know something's wrong."

"...They do." She should've chosen her words more carefully before. She practically _gave_ him the answer to that one.

"...That All Might-sensei we saw yesterday was his true form, wasn't it."

Wait.

'True form.'

Jirou's eyes narrowed.

"Who told you about that?"

"...You just did."

Shit.

Kaminari just played her like a god damn fiddle.

But his expression was unreadable.

"Jirou, what do you know about it?"

Jirou brought her knees to her chest. She wanted out.

"Let's talk about something else."

Kaminari's hands clenched into fists by his knees.

"Seriously, what's going on here?"

Jirou shook her head.

"I'm _not_ continuing this conversation."

Kaminari grabbed her shoulder.

"Just tell me!"

Jirou grabbed his wrist and yanked it right off.

"Would you _stop it_?!"

She didn't expect to be that loud. Her eyes stung. Her head hurt. She hated it.

Kaminari recoiled and his features softened. Like he got hurt too.

"What's so bad that you need to hide it from us...?"

She snapped.

"If there's something I have to hide, I wouldn't just spill it _now would I_?"

She didn't mean to snarl like that. Kaminari was taken aback. A silence hung in the air between them. Jirou didn't know what to say. She shouldn't have snapped like that, but he wasn't letting it go – which wasn't an excuse to be an asshole for no reason.

Kaminari stood up before she could say anything else.

And in a split second, he slapped a grin on his face and forced a change in the mood.

"Well, you're gonna need to get ready to leave right? I probably shouldn't be keeping you." He covered his anger with a mask of pep. He acted like this was the most natural way for the conversation to turn, like a third party wouldn't be concerned if they were listening in on the two of them. "I'll just leave you to it then!"

"Alright. See ya later, Kaminari!" She hid her frustration in turn with an uncharacteristic smile, and gave him a small wave.

"See ya, Jirou!" Kaminari waved back and shut the door a little too hard as he left the room. He hummed a little tune as he walked down the hall. He probably figured she was listening to him as he did it, and was trying to sound like it didn't bother him at all. But it just made his hidden agitation all the more obvious.

She let herself fall back on the bed springs the second he left the hospital. She let out a sigh of frustration and grabbed her bangs.

She'd have to apologize to Kaminari later. First she snapped at him when they were walking home not too long ago. Now she snapped at him for figuring out too much. He was getting the brunt of her wrath without even knowing the full story (though the fact that he was trying to know it in the first place was why she snapped in the first place). Not communicating effectively was one of those things that destroyed friendships.

She grabbed one of those bananas off the tray, peeled it, and took a big bite out of it. What Jirou thought of Kaminari wasn't going to change just because of something like this: He was just getting emotional like a lot of people in his shoes would. But it was frustrating that he was worried about All Might (he never said it out loud, but anyone with half a brain could figure it out). And that he couldn't see that what was going on was something out of his league. Hell, it was something out of _Jirou's_ league. It's why she was doing all these observations passively; she had no idea _what_ she could do that wouldn't invariably screw everything to high heaven.

She'd racked her brain for ideas after she had that realization about All Might's secret more times than she could count. There weren't any options she could think of where everyone would win, or where she could even prevent All Might from dying in the first place. She'd keep trying, but in this end she was still a third party in all this. And she was a kid. _And_ she didn't even have all the information.

She sighed and massaged her brow.

If only life were as simple as comic books made it out to be.

* * *

A/N: Personally, I think Jirou and Hagakure would have misgivings about the plan to save Kacchan; but they'd go with the gang anyway because they'd make a regular rescue mission 10x easier.

The last part of this fic was actually supposed to be the what the fic was mainly about, but it somehow turned into an alternate POV of this arc instead. Part of it has to do with the fact that I also have a feeling those distressed expressions Mineta and co. were wearing on that one page had more to do with the fact that Deku and the others could have very well been in one of those destroyed buildings than All Might just getting beaten up.

Also meet another eensy headcanon: Jirou thinks in military time.


End file.
